The
first day of the conference was the 2006 Health Care
Summit on Childhood Obesity.
This conference was a project of the National Initiative
for Children’s Health Care Quality (NICHQ), a Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation sponsored quality improvement
project. NICHQ is an action-oriented organization
dedicated solely to improving the quality of health care
provided to children. Founded in 1999, NICHQ’s mission
is to eliminate the gap between what is and what can be
in health care for all children. A national organization
with its home office in Boston, NICHQ also has offices
in Vermont and Washington State.
Only
those members of the AMA Expert Committee on the
Diagnosis, Prevention, and Treatment of Childhood
Obesity who represent their membership organizations
attended this conference. William H. Dietz, MD, PhD,
the conference chair, is the Director of the Division of
Nutrition and Physical Activity in the Center for
Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The
objectives of the September 19 meeting were to:
-
Refine design of a learning network of engaged
clinical and policy organizations and individuals to
accelerate improvement in childhood obesity;
-
Develop a strategy for ongoing support of that
network;
-
Identify promising opportunities for further
innovation in clinical practice;
-
Refine a framework for categorizing the diversity of
clinical approaches to childhood obesity intended to
enable more effective sharing;
-
Develop specific policies to support best practices
and further innovations;
-
Develop an action agenda for organizations in
attendance to generate continued improvements and
disseminate findings broadly;
-
Describe the process and key themes for the new Expert
Committee Recommendations.
I
attended plenary sessions and participated in focus
groups.
The
National Congress on
Accelerating Improvement in Childhood Obesity
was held on
September 20.
Participants learned about the latest innovations,
recommendations and potentially better practices in
health care practice and policy related to combating
this growing childhood epidemic.
The
objectives of the September 20 conference were to:
-
Build will for improvement by highlighting successful
interventions
-
Create a community of dedicated professionals working
together to transform the way the health care system
addresses childhood obesity
-
Disseminate state of the art recommendations and
tools, resources and promising approaches so that
attendees are able to make immediate improvements in
their own health care settings
-
Promote sharing among policy makers about successful
policy strategies to improve care related to
prevention and treatment of childhood obesity.
During both days of the conference, time was spent
highlighting the work of the program winners of The
Accelerating Improvement in Childhood Obesity awards.
As part of its ongoing initiative
to
contribute to the reduction in childhood obesity by
accelerating improvement of clinical services, NICHQ held
a national campaign for the 2006 National Recognition
Awards for Health Care Programs Addressing Childhood
Obesity.
The
winners of that award were:
Summary
The
conference provided insight into several important
issues:
-
The magnitude of the obesity epidemic is too great to
wait for evidence-based guidelines before increasing
efforts focused on prevention and intervention.
-
There should be an increased focus on what has worked
in the past for other public health threats such as
tobacco.
-
Much more research is needed to determine what
clinical and community based interventions are helpful
in decreasing childhood obesity.
-
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the NICHQ, the
CDC, the MCHB of HRSA, and the AMA provide the basis
for a national network of organizations that can
accelerate the necessary research and interventions
related to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of
childhood obesity, so that best practices are
determined and disseminated at a rate surpassing the
normal diffusion of knowledge and practice into the
health care community.
Epidemiology Society Leadership Call
Minutes
Date:
9-27-06
Present:
AAP Ruth Edsel
ACE John Acquavella
ACPM Gary Goldbaum
APHA Stan Weiss
ASA-EPI Sander Greenland
CSEB Rebecca Fuher
ENAR Jane Pendergast
IEA Jon Olsen
ISPE Alan Mitchell
SAAPHI Sandra Ford
SER Mike Bracken
SER Sherman James
SHEA Annette C. Mucha
SPER Annamaria Siegariz
SPER Mary Hediger
& Betsy Foxman
I. Meeting location for 2011 Congress
We discussed different locations. SER President Mike
Bracken will direct SER staff to look at the following
locations in rank order: 1) Philadelphia, 2) Washington,
DC or 3) Montreal and report back to the group at the
next call.
II. Joint North American Society Gift for Sir Richard
Doll Fund – Michael Bracken
Proposed use Congress profits in proportion to shared
risk and profit in a total amount in $15,000. Much
discussion, Mike will inquire about what levels of
giving will be noted as benefactors, and get back to
group. Will investigate opportunities for private giving
so that leadership can notify their membership.
III. HIPAA survey – There was strong support for
participating with the IOM in a survey about impact of
HIPAA on ability of epidemiologists to conduct their
work. It was suggested that the survey include
Biostatistics societies as well. ISPE has done some
work can share with Roberta Ness.
There was a related issue, regarding the problem of
differentiating between research and public health
practice and difficulties this poses.
IV. We discussed the proposal for a joint policy
committee (see attachment for original proposal). –
There was broad support (see list, below). It was
recommended that it would be useful to have broad
representation, whether or not a society generally
endorses policies.
IEA would support.
SER would support having ACE as a host of the committee.
AAP would support
ISPE – also has PP committee, question with outcome.
SAAPHI – will also support, but limited people & funds
ENAR & CSEB – uncertain if it would support,
traditionally has not. Might opt in or opt out
depending on the issue.
ACPM – would want to participate.
APHA – would participate.
Leadership of joint policy should be worked out in
policy & procedures.
Roberta Ness will send email with details.
Recommend circulation of minutes that all epidemiology
leadership gets the minutes of the joint policy
committee. Note that
the suggested portfolio is somewhat broader than in the
original proposal, that is, to include issues of
international concern, and those that impact the
profession in addition to funding.
Next Call - January 24, 2007 2pm Eastern Time
Agenda for next time
Sir Richard Doll Fund
2011 Congress
Joint Policy Committee
